Silly Love Songs
by Beckykins
Summary: Gene realises love is real under the most bizarre and unexpected of undercover operation. Galex. One-shot.


He never expected it to give him funny feelings inside. Seeing her like that. It was partly because the case was so ridiculously absurd that it probably belonged on 'Candid Camera' and partly because the new DI was an absolute freakin' fruitcake and the only way Gene could thing of shutting her up was to agree with her and allow this ludicrous charade to continue. Plus, it would get her out of his hair for a few weeks. Bloody infuriating woman.

"It is _not_, Bolly Knickers!"

"It is Guv, it's the centre of the web, trust me."

"It's utter bullshit, DI Drake. Carmichael isn't operating a crack den from a bloody pre-school."

She pouted. Secretly, Gene thought she looked adorable, not that he ever had thoughts like that and certainly not six times or so a day. She looked at him from beneath those impossible long, dark eyelashes with her impossibly huge eyes and he was sunk. Hook, line and goddamn sinker.

"Let me prove it." Her voice was softer, flirtatious almost.

"No." Truth was the thought of his Alex (and since when had he thought of her as 'his Alex' anyway? The truth was he'd started thinking of her like that the very day she waltzed into his life,) undercover unnerved him a little. He'd never forgive himself if anything happened to her just because she was chasing glory, wanting to score brownie points in her new station. She didn't need to prove anything to him, he already thought she was damn amazing, not that he'd ever admit that either.

"Two weeks, just two weeks undercover, that's all I ask. It'll make you look good with the Super."

The look again, the bloody look. The Gene-Genie had never fallen so hard for anyone in his life especially someone so loud and opinionated and skittish and annoying.

"Deal." It was then he knew he was completely gone.

It was right about then the funny feelings started. It was a Monday and Alex wasn't back from her first shift at the 'Little Stars' nursery school in Epping yet. He'd missed her, he'd actually missed her, especially, God forbid, all her nonsensical chattering and psycho-babble he didn't understand a word of. But then she was there, walking through the door of 'Luigi's' and she was... radiant. Simply radiant. He hadn't got it until then: when people said women looked radiant he thought they were just raging poofs. Wrong. Inexplicably, her hair was straight, tied back in a messy ponytail, she was wearing a lilac tunic and she looked about seventeen. Gene thought she looked... lovely. There was a tiny beauty mark on her neck that he'd never noticed before. She was beautiful and when Alex walked past him looking exhausted yet strangely happier than he'd ever seen her look before, she smelled of baby powder and it made him feel weak.

He didn't see her again until Friday, even though he was dying to, he knew it would be dangerous to meet her and compromise her cover. He went to her flat, late, after a few Jack Daniel's for courage. He had found her making paper chains for the kids that she was looking after on the floor. She'd gone soft. It was only when he found himself helping, obediently cutting alternating strips of pink and purple sugar paper exactly an inch wide like she'd asked him to, that he realised he must've gone bloody soft too.

It was the following Wednesday when he saw her again and what he saw made him jealous. There was a single photo adorning her otherwise bare coffee table of Alex and three toddlers with cheeky, toothy smiles. She looked happy. She was happy there. Happier than she was with him anyway.

"Friday," he said as he left.

"Friday," she confirmed with just a hint of regret in her voice. She looked a little sad at the thought of facing reality again.

And that was when the funny thing really happened. Because on Friday, amongst the... chaos, the arrests, the SWAT team, the drugs raid and the terrified, screaming children his DI sat, calm and serene, tenderly cradling a frightened child in her lap and reading him 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar,' in a quiet, soothing voice.

That was then that it hit him. He was in love with her. He was in love with his amazing, beautiful, kind, wonderful DI. He wasn't after a quick shag, he wanted the whole shebang and found himself picturing taking her to Paris and proposing to her under the Eiffel Tower, then having a little wedding in the Cotswolds, having things that used to scare him so much: a house. Kids. Looking at her, he realised what an amazing mother she must be to Molly, wherever she was. He didn't care about anything else, he wanted the works. He wanted to meet Molly too, make a go of things as a proper family.

When it was done he watched Alex look forlornly around the nursery one last time. He had surprised both of them by taking her hand and squeezing lightly. The Manc Lion, for the first time in his life, felt shy. All that mattered was him and her and this moment and he didn't care who saw.

"Dinner?" he asked, breaking the silence that had come over them since his hand had taken hold of hers.

She bit her lip and looked a little bashful. "Yeah... that'd be nice."

And he knew she understood.


End file.
